Esther Ghey: Brianna was addicted to social media – teenagers need to be protected from smartphones
Exclusive: The mother of Brianna Ghey is calling for tighter controls on smartphones and access to social media for young people in the wake of her daughter’s murder
The mother of murdered schoolgirl Brianna Ghey says social media use left her daughter addicted to her phone and vulnerable, as she called on the government to do more to protect children from online harm.
Esther Ghey urged mobile phone companies to tighten controls on access to social media apps and unsupervised internet use, as she said the Online Safety Act does not go far enough in safeguarding young people against dangerous online content.
In an exclusive interview with Independent TV, Ms Ghey revealed that her daughter, who was secretly visiting pro-anorexia and self-harm websites, was fixated on her mobile phone and withdrew from family and friends as her mental health deteriorated.
Making the case for stricter controls, Ms Ghey also pointed to the disturbing and violent content that the teenager’s killers, Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, were accessing in the weeks leading up to their horrific attack – including real-life torture and murder videos on the “dark web”.
Ms Ghey’s remarks come as the government issued new guidance on Monday instructing headteachers to ban the use of phones in schools, with the suggestion that staff can search pupils in a bid to crack down on the pernicious effects of social media and unrestricted internet use on young minds.
As she spoke out:
- Her petition calling for technology companies to help safeguard children online neared 100,000 signatures
- Education secretary Gillian Keegan defended the new guidance, which was earlier criticised as “a non-policy for a non-problem”
- Ms Ghey told this publication that X/Twitter has taken no further action after she reported transphobic abuse
- She revealed that her daughter’s bubbly character had inspired her to campaign to protect vulnerable teenagers
- And she said she would like to meet with her daughter’s killers’ parents, the prime minister, tech firms and regulators
The guidance was released almost three years after the government first called for a ban on phones in schools.
Ms Keegan said the government’s guidance aimed to offer “consistency to reset the social norm that there is no place for mobile phones in our schools all the way through the school day”.
Pressed on whether she would bring in legislation to ensure an outright ban, she said she would consider what more needed to be done if the guidance failed.
Tory MP Robin Walker, the chair of parliament’s education select committee, said Ms Ghey’s calls for age limits and stricter controls were “perfectly sensible”.
He told The Independent: “I think there’s absolutely a very valid debate to be had on all of that ... but I can completely understand a bereaved mother who has lost her child wanting to go further.”
He added that other measures also need to be looked at, including age limits and better age verification on social media.
“We [on the committee] recently heard evidence in France about proposals to introduce much stronger parental controls, including effectively parental supervision of social media, for children under the age of 16.”
Discussing her campaign, Ms Ghey suggested that had such measures been in place before Brianna was murdered, it might have been easier for her as a parent to navigate her daughter’s addiction to social media, and it could also have made things easier for her daughter.
“If the ... campaign that I’m running with the mobile phones was in place when Brianna was a teenager, for one, it would have caused a lot less arguments with us – and so it would have been a better family life.”
She added: “I think that so many other parents can relate to that as well. I think her mental health would have been better, because mobile phones really impact this – Brianna was addicted to her phone.”
Criticising the government’s latest attempts to crack down on phones, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, Geoff Barton, said the “compulsive use” of devices was not happening in schools but “while children are out of school”.
He said: “Most schools already forbid the use of mobile phones during the school day, or allow their use only in limited and stipulated circumstances. We have lost count of the number of times that ministers have now announced a crackdown on mobile phones in schools. It is a non-policy for a non-problem.
“The government would be far better off putting its energies into bringing to heel the online platforms via which children are able to access disturbing and extreme content.”
Brianna was brutally stabbed to death by her supposed friends Jenkinson and Ratcliffe, who are now 16 but were 15 at the time, after they lured her to Culcheth Linear Park near Warrington on 11 February last year.
The harrowing four-week trial at Manchester Crown Court heard how the “warped” pair had a fascination for violence, torture and murder – and shared a “thirst for killing”.
Both were sentenced to life imprisonment earlier this month for the “exceptionally brutal” murder, which the judge said had elements of sadism by Jenkinson, who was handed a minimum term of 22 years, and transphobic hate on the part of Ratcliffe, who will serve at least 20 years.
Brianna’s family and friends were among the huge crowd that gathered at a vigil held in memory of the teenager in her hometown to mark the first anniversary of the brutal murder. Ms Ghey was among those who wore pink, her daughter’s favourite colour, while flowers, paintings and messages piled up in Golden Square in a vigil reminiscent of events held in the days immediately following Brianna’s death.
Ms Ghey said the event on 11 February this year highlighted Brianna’s loved ones’ determination that she would not be remembered as a victim. “It’s important for me to remember Brianna for who she was rather than what's happened to her,” she said. “And I think that’s how Brianna would want to be remembered, as well.”
She said Brianna was “absolutely fearless, joyful, happy, unique and special”, telling of holidays spent in the UK with just the two of them, Brianna’s older sister Alisha, and their family dog. “Brianna absolutely loved the hot tub, she would be in there for literally eight hours a day just bopping around,” she said.
Her second campaign, Peace in Mind, to introduce mindfulness into schools across the country, is also centred on creating a lasting legacy for her daughter, with the fundraiser having already raised over £80,000 for the Mindfulness in Schools Project.
Ms Ghey said her own practice of mindfulness, which she began eight years ago, had helped her to endure the painful months since her daughter’s death, describing mindfulness as the building of mental resilience, understanding and awareness as well as empathy and compassion.
She said: “It really helped when I’ve gone through the worst situation that could ever happen, and it helped me to deal with the trauma – and maybe quicker than I would have done if I didn’t have that mindfulness practice in place in the first place.”
Ms Ghey said she views the sentencing as closure for her family. “Now I really feel like I can move forward and concentrate on creating that lasting, positive legacy for Brianna,” she said, adding that this involves trying to create a more empathetic and understanding society as well as improving young people’s mental health.
Speaking of what she missed about her daughter a year on from losing her, she said: “I think that when you love somebody so much, you love them for every single aspect of them. I miss Brianna. I just hope that I can create a legacy for her and keep her memory alive.”
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